Video: Rowan's New Transportation Research Facility Officially Opens

Posted:
Wednesday, September 14, 2016 12:00 AM EDT

MULLICA HILL, N.J. – Rowan University Center for Research and Education in Advanced Transportation Engineering Systems, also known as CREATES, officially opened today.The new center will conduct research on transportation related topics. Officials say work done at CREATES will enhance the transportation industry through the creation of improved construction materials and pavement technologies, the development of solutions to ease traffic congestion, and the introduction of efficiencies to improve construction and infrastructure.The university's construction materials lab and the new accelerated pavement testing facility is housed at the center with its heavy vehicle simulator which is capable of simulating two decades of highway traffic."Here you can do it in the lab and make sure that it does what it is supposed to do and then you go and implement it. In doing so you save the taxpayers millions of dollars and that's very important because transportation infrastructure in this country is massive and the cost of maintenance is massive and anything we can do to reduce that cost is good for everyone," said Rowan University President Ali Houshmand.The nearly $5 million needed to build the 50-foot by 90-foot CREATES building was funded by the state, the US Department of Defense, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the New Jersey Department of Transportation.This is the second building to open at the Rowan University South Jersey Technology Park in Mullica Hill.